Connect with:
Wednesday / March 12. 2025

logo
mobile-logo
Home2022 (Page 10)
Agrotech, Biofuel industry, India, Opinions, Sugar industry

By Suhas Baxi, Co-Founder and CEO, BiofuelCircle

The government of India has announced to reach net zero emissions by 2070 and to meet 50 per cent of its electricity requirements from renewable energy sources by 2030. This is hugely significant for the global fight against climate change.  Such targets can be met through increasing domestic production, adopting biofuels and renewables, applying energy efficiency norms, developing refinery processes, and achieving demand substitution. India has abundant indigenous, non-polluting, and virtually inexhaustible renewable energy resources, which makes biofuel a viable option.  This environmentally friendly alternative also brings with it several possibilities to enable a positive transformation.

Why Biomass as Biofuel 

India ranks in the top 3 countries by crop production. Agri-waste biomass holds the highest potential for small scale business development and mass employment in India. Characterised by low-cost technologies and freely available raw materials, biomass as biofuel has the potential to be one of the leading sources of primary energy. Aided by proven end-use technologies, biomass is not only environmentally efficient but also an economically sound option. Unfortunately, with millions of farmers in the workforce, farm waste is not considered as an avenue for extra income in India. Inefficiencies in the ecosystem such as a lack of delivery linkages, unorganised supply chain, no direct connection of the industry with the source, low benefit to the farmer, and lack of transparent pricing, among others, also exacerbate matters. 

India imports nearly 85 per cent of crude oil, which incurs high import costs. On top of it, the air quality in urban India is deteriorating due to the growing vehicular traffic and emissions. This is where biofuel production can make a significant difference as it can seamlessly replace fossil fuels and help reduce the carbon footprint. Biofuels can pave the path to energy self-sufficiency and create a robust rural economy, thus aiding in overall economic development.

Factors enabling a biomass ecosystem 

Although there lies a huge opportunity in harnessing the rural markets of biomass, there also is a distinct lack of cohesion and connectivity between the farmers and the industry.

Rural Storages

The seasonal availability coupled with round the year industrial demand, calls mechanisation and storage-related facilities in biomass catchment areas. The current shortage of mechanisation and unavailability of small storage facilities is clearly one of the constraints as far as the supply chain is concerned. Encouraging farmers/ farmer collectives and rural businesses to create small rural storages will help harness biomass and help generate higher value for rural participants. 

Small Rural Businesses

Biomass is very low in density. Thus, despite its proven technical value as an energy source, the cost of logistics can make use of biomass uneconomical. Small briquette/ pellet manufacturing units located within 20 km distance from source will not only help solve the challenge of logistics, but also create stronger rural enterprise and economic value.

Small Business Finance

The challenge of storage and logistics will always call for decentralised small businesses as primary constituents of the biomass supply chain. Small storages, small processors, small aggregators; all based in rural areas will facilitate India’s drive to use more than 200 million metric tonnes (MT) of annual Agri-waste. A few thousand such businesses dotting the rural landscape will call for efficient small business finance for this sector. How do we elevate the biomass supply chain to the level of acceptance of say an automotive supply chain? Tier 3 and tier 4 suppliers of automakers benefit from their association with large Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs). Capital as well as working capital is available at competitive rates for these suppliers. How do we create a similar supply chain for biomass? Will it be possible for a small rural business to get competitive interest finance because it is a tier 3 supplier to a large credit rated company?  

Supply Quality

A key thing to recognise about biomass is that we are dealing with a natural product. Thus, its quality may vary based on crop type, soil type, weather condition and a host of other factors. Industrial end use though calls for assured uniform quality. Defining quality standards, Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for quality assurance and creating knowledge and skills to deliver uniform quality, will help these rural businesses scale up. Several sectors including the tea industry have achieved standardisation, grading and price discovery methods that have made it a global industry. There is an urgent need to create a quality ecosystem for similar action in the biomass space. 

Data Base

From the perspective of a bioenergy company, investing in technology is contingent on the dependability and predictability of stakeholders. For instance, if one must set up a bioenergy company, they must ensure that there is a steady supply of biomass for at least 300 days in a year. Therefore, having the information about demand, supply, storages, pricing etc. needs to become omnipresent. Availability of accurate and reliable information allows businesses to work on long term plans. Investment in the sector will grow when the supply chain becomes visible and transparent. Planning, forecasting, and investing in the sector will be aided if we are able to give a national character to the biomass supply chain through such databases. 

The fledgling bioenergy technology sector will also benefit from this as lenders and investors will have a reliable basis for decision making. 

Rural-Industrial Culture

Industries in India have mostly tended to be attached to urban centres. Thus, the entire organisation and cultural ecosystem that drives predictable and reliable operation from small rural businesses, will need human capital development. Trust between industrial buyers and rural sellers will be the direct outcome of these efforts.

Role of Digital Technology

A few million farmers, seasonal supplies, small rural businesses, round the year industrial demand and service providers for transport, quality, finance etc. makes for an interesting use case for digitalisation. To top it, traceability of biomass from its origin to its end use will create a reliable framework for carbon neutrality. Along the way, one also needs to address issues associated with incentivisation, price discovery, standardisation, and supply reliability. 

While applications such as food delivery, transport services etc. which have a consumer end use have become popular, for biomass we need a platform that makes it easy for millions of farmers to participate, while providing a robust framework for industries too. 

The biomass supply chain is still at a very early stage. We currently use about 20 per cent of the available Agri-residue biomass. At its maturity, the biomass product supply chain has a potential to be > $40 billion in annual turnover. The opportunity is for us to put a strong digital technology framework that creates ease, efficiency, reliability, and choice. 

Looking Ahead

India has vast potential in terms of the 235 million tonnes of Agri-waste that is generated every year. We need to look at this as an all-new industry that will support a few million farmers, thousands of small rural businesses, and help India replace upwards of 17 per cent of its fossil fuel through biomass. At some level, this means increasing the rural household income while we become carbon neutral.

By Suhas Baxi, Co-Founder and CEO, BiofuelCircleThe

Agrotech, Company News, Dairy, India, Start ups

To deploy fresh capital for geography expansion, strengthening tech stack and to grow the top line to 300 Cr

With a focus on the farmers pain of low milk yield and less profits, Mooofarm an Agtech company has launched‘Dairy as a Service (DaaS)’ full-stack platform where farmers can buy best breed cattle, access tele-health and balanced nutrition services to increase milk yield and get loans to buy dairy inputs. 

The Mooofarm app, downloaded by 1.4+ million farmers, is a dairy farm management application designed for ease of use by dairy farmers in their vernacular language making buying of inputs (Cattle Feed and Cattle) more reliable, access to veterinary services more convenient at the fingertips. It also gives farmers access to relevant dairy farming techniques where they can calculate costs and revenue, access real time solutions, view learning options to critical problems, and allow farm data to be available in one place. 

The distribution of these services to the end farmer is ensured by Mooosathi, a village level entrepreneur to provide last mile aggregation and servicing of demand. The company will utilise the fresh investment to further scale its operations in Rajasthan, Punjab & Haryana and also unlock its geographical footprint to Madhya Pradesh & Maharashtra. Further Mooofarm targets to grow its MoooSathi base to 3000 and increase its revenue to Rs 300 crore by FY24.

Param Singh, Founder & CEO, Mooofarm, said, “We aim to utilise this Series A funding to further expand our operations nationally and strengthen our capacity to cater to the growing needs of our farmer communities. Our ability to combine a dairy farmer centric approach coupled with technology-driven processes and solid infrastructure, Mooofarm offers an integrated, efficient and scalable dairy management solution that connects all stakeholders along the value chain, making our platform indispensable to improve efficiency, yield and profits. “

To deploy fresh capital for geography expansion,

Acts & Schemes – Centre, Horticulture, India

Great potential to transform the entire horticulture ecosystem by creating last-mile connectivity with the use of multimodal transport

The Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare has prepared the Horticulture Cluster Development Programme (CDP), for which a meeting was held under the chairmanship of Narendra Singh Tomar, Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister for its proper implementation. Tomar told the concerned officials that the main objective of the government is to promote the Agriculture sector in the country and to increase the income of the farmers by giving them a reasonable price for their produce, so the interest of the farmers should be paramount in the centre of any programme/scheme.

Tomar said that the overall development of horticulture in the country would be focused with the help of the implementation of the Cluster Development Programme and it would be emphasised that the farmers should be benefited from this programme. He said that the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, West Bengal, Manipur, Mizoram, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand etc. should also be included in the list of 55 clusters, identified with their focus/main crops. Tomar said that the land available with Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) affiliated institutions within the identified clusters should be utilised for the implementation of this programme. He also emphasised on crop diversification and linking this ambitious programme with the market for produce sale and capacity building.

The meeting was informed that the Cluster Development Programme has a great potential to transform the entire horticulture ecosystem by creating last-mile connectivity with the use of multimodal transport for efficient and timely evacuation and transportation of horticulture produce. The CDP will also create cluster-specific brands, while helping the economy, to integrate them into national and global value chains, thereby providing higher remuneration to farmers. The CDP will benefit around 10 lakh farmers and related stakeholders along the value chain. The CDP aims to improve exports of targeted crops by about 20 per cent and create cluster-specific brands to enhance the competitiveness of cluster crops. A lot of investment will also come in the horticulture sector through CDP.

During the meeting, Tomar released Cluster-wise 12 brochures containing details of opportunities to avail financial assistance through relevant government schemes/programmes. The brochures also provide brief information about focus crop, potential value addition and export destinations.

Great potential to transform the entire horticulture

India

Emphasises on adopting a holistic approach in the Indian agriculture sector

Narendra Singh Tomar, Union Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister while addressing the recently held Sustainable Agriculture Summit and Awards function said that the educated youth are getting attracted towards Agriculture sector and the government is continuously encouraging them through various schemes and programmes to join the Agriculture sector. He said this as the chief guest at the 2nd Sustainable Agriculture Summit & Awards organised by FICCI in New Delhi. 

Emphasising on adopting a holistic approach in the Indian agriculture sector, Tomar said that there is a need to have a balanced-holistic approach in the agriculture sector, which will lead to more rapid development of agriculture. Tomar also said that in the agriculture sector, instead of focusing on only a few crops, we should have a diversified vision for all crops, including increasing production and productivity.

Explaining the importance of millets (nutritious cereals) in the Indian tradition, Tomar said that the demand and consumption of millets is increasing globally. On the initiative of India under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the United Nations has declared 2023 as the ‘International Year of Millets’, for which preparations are being made by the government. Prime Minister Modi wants that nutri-cereals get respect again in the food platter, as it used to get earlier.

Emphasises on adopting a holistic approach in

Company News, Horticulture

BIOS addresses the risks posed by insufficient light exposure for plant health and yields

BIOS, a NASA spinoff and leader in human wellness and horticultural lighting technologies has announced Deepak Savadatti as the company’s new Chief Executive Officer. Savadatti, being an energetic entrepreneur and global business leader in the semiconductor and life sciences industries, brings a wealth of leadership experience to broaden the worldwide presence of BIOS and the company’s biologically driven lighting for humans and plants.

“Just like plants, humans are sunlight-seeking creatures. Thanks to our own human innovation of artificial lighting, we now spend 90 per cent of our life indoors. Sunlight is the primary signal for plants to grow and for the body to regulate the master clock in our brains”, says Savadatti. “Every cell in our body relies on the master clock to help regulate when we are active and when we should rest.”

“In the same way that insufficient light exposure creates risks for plant health and yields, disrupted human circadian rhythm is linked to chronic conditions and sleep disorders,” explains Savadatti. “The LED lighting that we use today was created to enhance good vision and plant response while reducing energy consumption. The greatest disservice committed by the lighting industry is ignoring the impact of light on the health and wellness of human beings. BIOS is here to change that. I am excited to be a part of BIOS to help billions of people and plants around the globe benefit from lighting technology that not only lights up our rooms but will light up our lives.”

“Deepak is an impressive entrepreneur who has scaled companies from scratch as well as grown large organisations to higher profitability,” said Loren Roseman, Chairman of the Board for BIOS Lighting. “Deepak’s background in engineering, product development, marketing, and business development will enable BIOS to reach our full potential. We are thrilled to have Deepak as our CEO to help establish BIOS as the leader of the lighting world for humans and plants.”

BIOS addresses the risks posed by insufficient

Uncategorized

Acquisition to reinforce Corteva’s commitment to provide farmers with Biological tools which evolves farming practices

Corteva Inc and Stoller Group have announced that Corteva has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Houston-based Stoller, one of the largest independent Biologicals companies in the industry. 

The acquisition of Stoller reinforces Corteva’s commitment in providing farmers with Biological tools that complement evolving farming practices and help them meet changing market expectations. Stoller’s superior reputation for farmer relationships and demand creation centres around a commercial model that’s built upon sharing knowledge with the channel and farmers. Stoller has been successful by demonstrating technical excellence and delivering benefits and value of integrated solutions in the field. 

“Biologicals provide farmers with sustainably-advantaged tools that complement crop protection technologies, and collectively, can work to address global challenges around food security and climate change. Stoller represents a leader in the Biologicals industry given its commercial presence and market expansion potential, while also delivering attractive growth and operating margins,” said Chuck Magro, Chief Executive Officer.  “In combination with Corteva’s leading innovation organisation, Stoller provides a platform for expanding and accelerating Corteva’s Biologicals business to become one of the largest players in the rapidly expanding Biologicals market.” 

Acquisition to reinforce Corteva's commitment to provide

Agrotech, Company News, Europe, R&D

 SynTech considers this as an opportunity to offer its customers a complete package of services in Europe

Changing expectations and the transformation of the agriculture industry has driven Bayer to adapt to support farmers and agriculture as a whole. Bayer’s strategy focuses on long-term developments, technology trends and customer expectations. In line with this strategy, Bayer has announced its intention to divest the Lyon residue laboratory to an external partner, such activities being very commonly outsourced for many players in the agricultural sector.

The residue laboratory employs 15 permanent and two fixed-term employees. This team is in charge of quantifying residues of crop protection products in agricultural commodities and in toxicological studies.

SynTech Research Group is a leading global agricultural contract research, product positioning, development, registration, and market support services provider. It has over 600 experienced scientists and managers, working from a network of experimental field stations, laboratories and regulatory service locations in over 40 countries. Its rapidly expanding business provides services globally to agrochemical, bio-solutions and seeds and traits customers, based on its strengths in science, agronomy, regulatory and market experience.

SynTech Research Group considers this acquisition to be an opportunity to develop and complete its service offering for residue analysis and to offer its customers a complete package of services in Europe. Already present in USA and Brazil for residue analysis, SynTech Research Group aims to become the world leader in this activity. Through this acquisition, the Lyon laboratory holds the potential to become the European regional center of excellence for “Product Safety Services”.

Bayer thus sees SynTech Research Group as a solid potential acquirer of the Lyon Residue Analysis Laboratory. Confident in the expertise of the divested business, Bayer would become a privileged partner through the establishment of long-term collaboration contracts.

The process would take approximately six months. Over the next months, Bayer will discuss the terms of the offer with SynTech Research Group and consult with the workers councils. If these steps are successfully completed, Bayer would sign a definitive agreement with SynTech Research Group. The sale would be expected to become effective June 1, 2023, providing all necessary regulatory approvals and closing conditions are satisfied.

From the date of sale, Bayer is committed to set up post-closing agreements that would maintain operational processes and business continuity of activities. Until closing, the laboratory would continue to operate as part of Bayer, with no impact on its activities. As always, Bayer is committed to supporting the concerned employees through the upcoming changes in a spirit of fairness and consideration for all.

Due to confidentiality agreements, Bayer and SynTech Research Group cannot divulge any further details about the process.

 SynTech considers this as an opportunity

AgroPolicy, Agrotech, India, R&D

The report outlines broad level policy interventions needed across various sectors for its application

NITI Aayog has released a study report titled ‘Carbon Capture, Utilisation, and Storage Policy Framework and its Deployment Mechanism in India’. The report explores the importance of Carbon Capture, Utilisation, and Storage as an emission reduction strategy to achieve deep decarbonization from the hard-to-abate sectors. The report outlines broad level policy interventions needed across various sectors for its application.

The report indicates that CCUS can provide a wide variety of opportunities to convert the captured CO2 to different value-added products like green urea, food and beverage form application, building materials (concrete and aggregates), chemicals (methanol and ethanol), polymers (including bio-plastics) and enhanced oil recovery (EOR) with wide market opportunities in India, thus contributing substantially to a circular economy.

As, India has updated its NDC targets for achieving 50 per cent of its total installed capacity from non-fossil-based energy sources, 45 per cent reduction in emission intensity by 2030 and taking steps towards achieving Net Zero by 2070, the role of CCUS becomes important as reduction strategy to achieve decarbonization from the hard-to abate sectors.

“CCUS can enable the production of clean products while still utilizing our rich endowments of coal, reducing imports and thus leading to an Atmanirbhar Indian economy.” said Suman Bery, Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog. Implementation of CCUS technology certainly be an important step to decarbonise the hard-to-abate sector.

CCUS projects will also lead to a significant employment generation. It estimates that about 750 mtpa of carbon capture by 2050 can create employment opportunities of about 8-10 million on full time equivalent (FTE) basis in a phased manner.

“India’s dependency on the fossil-based Energy Resources is likely to continue in future, hence CCUS policy in Indian Context is needed” said Dr. V.K Saraswat, Member, NITI Aayog.

The report outlines broad level policy interventions

Agrotech, Finance, India, Start ups

Agribusiness Marketplaces overtook Midstream Technologies to become the most funded upstream category in FY2022.

India has overtaken China as Asia-Pacific’s biggest funder of agrifoodtech innovation, attracting record levels of investment in the fiscal year April 2021 to March 2022, according to AgFunder and Omnivore’s fourth India AgriFood Startup Investment Report.  With $4.6 billion in agrifood venture capital investments in FY2021-22, India’s agrifood ecosystem is finally receiving the funding required to tackle the challenges faced by smallholder farmers, rural communities, agricultural value chains, and food systems.

As with other parts of the world and particularly in the wake of Covid-19, food delivery services inflated total investment level, with Restaurant Marketplaces and eGrocery startups securing close to $3 billion – around 66 per cent– of total investment in the fiscal year (FY) ending 31 March 2022. But increasing deal activity for upstream innovations shows promise.

Other key insights in the report:

  • Total investment in agrifoodtech startups for India’s FY2022 stood at $4.6 billion, up 119 per cent from $2.1 billion in FY2021.
  • Deal activity also increased to 234 in FY2022 compared to 189 deals in FY2021.
  • Agribusiness Marketplaces overtook Midstream Technologies to become the most funded upstream category in FY2022. The former raised $569 million in FY2022, a 7x jump from the $86 million raised in FY2021.
  • While Midstream Technologies remains an active category with $461 million raised across 19 deals, the number of deals declined. This is indicative of multiple sub-categories including logistics, transport, and B2B retail achieving maturity.
  • Ag Biotechnology emerged as a fast-growing upstream category, raising $114 million in FY2022, a sharp increase from $5 million in FY2021.
  • Farmtech startups closed $1.5 billion in funding, a 185 per cent increase on the $527 million raised in FY2021. Rapidly improving technology adoption buoyed this segment of agrifoodtech, together with steady demand for traceable quality produce, encouraging innovations aimed at ironing out chronic inefficiencies.
  • Restaurant Marketplace and eGrocery were the most funded downstream categories, accounting for 84 per cent of total downstream funding with eGrocery startups landing the highest number of late-stage deals.
  • eGrocery startups raised $934 million across 42 deals, a 4x jump from $244 million across 25 deals in FY2021.
  • Investment in Online Restaurants & Meal Kits saw a remarkable recovery at $301 million in FY2022, almost 4x more than $64 million in FY2021.
  • Upstream investment leapt 300 per cent to $1.2 billion up from $312 million. The participation of generalist VCs, bigger deals sizes, and higher deal count contributed to this increase.

Mark Kahn, Managing Partner, Omnivore, said, “The investment trends are proof that the agrifoodtech space can no longer be called niche. It has caught the attention of generalist VCs the world over who understand that agrifoodtech is key to the transformation of India’s massive agricultural sector and rural economy.”

Agribusiness Marketplaces overtook Midstream Technologies to become

Company News, North America, Supply Chain, Sustainability

Farmer-focused Features to Enhance B2B Produce Marketplace Capabilities

Full Harvest, the San Francisco, California-based business-to-business produce marketplace specialising in surplus and imperfect produce, has announced the acquisition of FarmersWeb, a farm sales and inventory management SaaS provider. Adding FarmersWeb’s proven software capabilities to its technology pipeline, Full Harvest now has the ability to speed the delivery of advanced features for its produce suppliers and buyers – driving a more efficient, sustainable produce supply chain.

“Climate change considerations have become a pressing priority across the agriculture and food industry, especially in regard to on-farm food loss. We understand the need to move as quickly as possible to provide effective solutions to reduce food waste, and acquiring FarmersWeb will help us make our vision of 100 percent full harvests a reality faster,” said Full Harvest Founder and CEO Christine Moseley. “Adding valuable software features from the FarmersWeb platform to our produce marketplace will help our farms sell their excess produce easier, more rapidly, and more efficiently than ever before.”

“Providing farmers with the software capabilities needed to better streamline and manage their business has been our core mission for many years. Working with an acquirer who shared that mission was very important to us. Full Harvest is disrupting how surplus and imperfect produce is bought and sold; I am thrilled to know that the hard work we spent creating our software will continue to be part of building a more sustainable supply chain,” added David Ross, Co-Founder and CEO of FarmersWeb. “I am looking forward to seeing Full Harvest’s vision take root even faster.”

Digitising produce buying and selling through its online marketplace, Full Harvest quickly and efficiently connects growers with produce buyers to unlock new revenue channels and minimise food waste. The addition of FarmersWeb’s advanced software features, such as inventory and order management as well as payments, will enable growers to bring even more produce to market faster.

Farmer-focused Features to Enhance B2B Produce Marketplace

India

To focus on insect taxonomy, semiochemicals, pollinators and biological control

ICAR-National Bureau of Agricultural Insect Resources, Bengaluru has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Chaudhary Sarwan Kumar Himachal Pradesh Krishi Vishvavidyalaya , Palampur for promoting students’ collaborative research in the areas of insect taxonomy, semiochemicals, pollinators and biological control.

The MoU was signed in the presence of Dr TR Sharma, Deputy Director General (Crop Sciences), Dr Harinder Kumar Chaudhary, Vice Chancellor, CSKHPKV, Palampur and Dr SN Sushil, Director, ICAR-NBAIR.

Dr T R Sharma, lauded the huge insect collections housed at the National Insect Museum at ICAR-NBAIR, Bengaluru. He also emphasised on the need for the culturing of bumble bees and the potential scope for utilising them in polyhouse pollination.

Dr Harinder Kumar Chaudhary emphasised upon the sharing of the expertise and facilities for research of PG students for effective utilisation of resources. He also stressed on collaboration with the Bureau to address the emerging /new insects pests in the hill grown crops in Himachal Pradesh.

Dr SN Sushil, briefed the Bureau’s taxonomic expertise across different insect orders, conservation of Apis/non-Apis bees, biological control of invasive insects, semiochemical based insect management strategy, slow-release nano pheromone formulations and molecular characterisation and DNA barcoding of insects and insect whole genome sequencing.

A Brain Storming session for future collaboration with ICAR Institutes was also organised. 

To focus on insect taxonomy, semiochemicals, pollinators

Acts & Schemes – Centre, AgroPolicy, Foodgrains, India, People, Vegetables

If FPOs are successful in making farmers wealthy and debt-free, a single farmer will not commit suicide in Vidarbha.

At a recent workshop organised for FPOs in Vidarbha at the 13th Agrovision exhibition, Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways said, “Farmer’s Producer Companies (FPC) should work to make farmers prosperous, wealthy, debt-free, and happy. If FPOs are successful in making farmers wealthy and debt-free. In that case, a single farmer will not commit suicide in Vidarbha”.

Gadkari advised farmers to form companies to market and export their products.  Sharad Gadakh, Vice Chancellor of Dr Panjabrao Deshmukh Agriculture University, Ravi Boratkar, Organising Secretary of Agrovision and Publisher of AgroSpectrum magazine, C D Mayee, Chairman, Advisory committee Agrovision, Ajay Kadu, General Manager, Agricultural Market Committee, Nagpur and other delegates were present at the conference. 

Gadkari said, “FPO is a power of Farmers; with the help of FPOs, farmers can sell their products, without depending on the government. FPO is the social economic transformation of farmers. Farmers should get training in the formation of FPO and market their products. Farmers should find their own market. Five thousand FPOs should be formed in Vidarbha for the development of farmers”.

Ajay Kadu advised farmers on forming FPOs. Till now 27 agro products in Maharashtra have received GI tags. 11 crops in Maharashtra including four from Vidarbha are part of the Maharashtra Agri-Business Network (MAGNET) Project. MAGNET-focused crops are Banana, Guava, Pomegranate, Sapota, Custard Apple, Strawberry, Orange, Sweet lime, Okra, Chilly (Green and Red), and floriculture crops. The state government collaborates with the Asian Development Bank for MAGNET. The Rs 1,000-crore project, which is aimed mainly at fruit and vegetable producers, aims to improve processing and minimise the losses in the perishables sector. Successful FPO owners were honoured by Gadkari.    

If FPOs are successful in making farmers

Agrotech, India, Start ups

Company’s assets under management of over 15000 crore make it India’s largest grain commerce platform

Arya.ag, India’s fastest-growing integrated grain commerce platform, has announced a four-fold jump in profits H1FY23 revenues. The company reported a profit of 14.38 crore, an increase over its last year’s base 3.86 crore. These profits have been driven by a six-fold increase in gross revenues in the same period. The platform has an assets under management (AUM) of over 15000 crore making it India’s largest grain commerce platform. 

Arya.ag holds the unique distinction of being the only profitable agritech in the country, in a scenario where startups have seen significant burn and reported large losses. Arya.ag has been able to develop a resilient and scalable model built on profitability.

Noteworthy developments for Arya.ag during the period under consideration include – Acquiring stake in computer-vision startup, Assert AI, Acquisition of agriculture data science company, Prakshep, launch of Insta-loan services that enable the farming community to avail loans instantly against their stored commodity at Arya.ag’s intelligent warehouses through tech-led digital linkages, Introduction of pioneering Insta-Release services that allow farmers to gain complete control of their farm produce immediately upon repayment of loans. 

Anand Chandra, Executive Director and Co-Founder, Arya.ag said,“As India’s largest agritech platform, we have been able to establish unprecedented relevance of our services to the Agri ecosystem. By solving for the end-to-end needs of our customers through integrated services, we have been able to create a highly scalable and profitable model”.

Company's assets under management of over 15000

Acquaculture, Company News, Environment, India, Sustainability

Several fish vaccine candidates are currently being evaluated by IIL for commercialisation

Indian Immunologicals Limited, a leading vaccine manufacturer, has announced partnership with Central Institute of Fisheries Education (CIFE), Mumbai and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) Institute for the commercial development of vaccine against common bacterial diseases in freshwater fishes. IIL has forayed into Aqua business in October 2022 by launching products for aquaculture health market dealing with pond management and fish or shrimp gut management.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr K Anand Kumar, Managing Director, Indian Immunologicals Limited said, “IIL has introduced several innovative veterinary vaccines first to the world, like Porcine Cysticercosis vaccine, FMD+HS+BQ combination vaccine and Theileria vaccine. IIL is again the first in India to get to fish vaccines. We are committed to introducing more and more products for the aquaculture market and help shrimp and fish growers to increase their productivity and protect fish schools from various diseases”.

IIL strive to explore solutions for the prevailing challenges faced by Indian fish farmers in their farm production system. CIFE will provide technology for two inactivated bacterial vaccines, one for Columnaris Disease, a serious condition affecting numerous freshwater fish species, and other for Edwardsiellosis that cause high degree of mortality, leading to severe economic losses. Both the diseases are extremely common in freshwater fishes and is generally considered to be ubiquitous.

Dr Priyabrata Pattnaik, Deputy Managing Director, Indian Immunologicals Limited added “IIL is planning to introduce vaccines and immunostimulants with tech transfer from various fisheries institutes under ICAR. Several fish vaccine candidates are currently being evaluated by IIL for commercialisation. Launch of such vaccines may have a positive impact on reducing indiscriminate use of chemical or antibiotic based treatment methods, helping reduce antimicrobial resistance by fish farmers practicing environmentally sustainable ways of pond and fish health management”.

Dr CN Ravishankar, Director and Vice Chancellor of ICAR-CIFE said “In support to India’s Blue Revolution, I am glad that CIFE and IIL have come together to partner in developing India’s fist bacterial fish vaccine”.

Several fish vaccine candidates are currently being